Rare pre-Inca burials of 4 people found at 'water cult' temple in Peru

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Archaeologists have found the skeletal remains of four people — two children, a teenager and an adult — at a site in Peru that predates the Incas.

A pile of bones in the dirt
The deceased were buried with funerary goods, such as stone pendants and snail shells. (Image credit: National University of Trujillo)

Archaeologists have unearthed the skeletal remains of four people who were buried in Peru's Viru Valley about 3,800 years ago, millennia before the Incas flourished in the region.

The burials of two children, a teenager and an adult were found in the remains of what is likely a temple, the archaeologists said in a translated statement. All four individuals were found lying on their sides and appear to face a mountain, the statement said. The remains of funerary goods, such as stone pendants and snail shells, were found with the deceased.

The temple containing the burials was built with cobblestone walls that were held together by clay plaster. The temple's walls have curved corners, and pottery fragments have been found at the site. It's possible that the temple had a cult associated with water, the statement said.

Related: 3,000-year-old tomb of shaman who may have mediated 'between spiritual and earthly worlds' found in Peru

Jason Nesbitt, an associate professor of anthropology at Tulane University who is not involved with the excavations, praised the team's work. "I am highly impressed by this project and these investigations further demonstrate the importance of this valley during the early second millennium [B.C.]," Nesbitt told Live Science in an email.

A group of archaeologists standing in the desert

The researchers who excavated the burials at the Queneto archaeological site in Peru. (Image credit: National University of Trujillo)

"At present, there are relatively few burials from this period," Nesbitt said, adding that these four burials "will aid archaeologists in examining social differentiation based on status, age, and gender."

Nesbitt noted that he is "also intrigued by the notion that these burials were facing the mountains. Mountains have symbolic significance in Andean cosmology and were also the source of water for irrigation in an otherwise desert landscape."

The team was led by Feren Castillo Luján and Christian González, both archaeologists at the National University of Trujillo. Live Science reached out to the team but did not hear back by the time of publication.

Owen Jarus
Owen Jarus
Live Science Contributor

Owen Jarus is a regular contributor to Live Science who writes about archaeology and humans' past. He has also written for The Independent (UK), The Canadian Press (CP) and The Associated Press (AP), among others. Owen has a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Toronto and a journalism degree from Ryerson University.